Time management skills are one of those life skills that almost everyone is guilty of searching for but not implementing. Whether you’re working from home or remotely, the importance of time management cannot be ignored in your overall productivity. In this blog, I am sharing some of my best tips to improve your time management.
Having the right time management skills is one of the most crucial aspects of a successful career.
Time management is not just about managing your professional life, it is equally about having a personal life.
When you have good time management skills, you have what it takes to be nearly able to balance the best of both worlds for you. Because, there is nothing like having “the perfect balance” in life, or at least that is what I believe.
With the overuse of social media and the time people spend on it, time management has taken a backseat in most people’s lives.
So, I am sharing some tried, tested, and effective tips that will improve your time management skills, scale your productivity, and gain back the control you lack in your life.
How to Improve Your Time Management Skills? Here are 7 Tips to Help You
There are days when I feel so stressed out for not having enough time. And 99% of this stress exists because of my lack of time management.
This self-realization has helped me get my life in order just by making small yet meaningful changes in my lifestyle. After all, your time management is a clear reflection of your choices.
With this blog, I aim to share my experience of how I have been able to improve my time management skills so that you can implement them and get maximum benefits.
What is a Time Management Skill?
Building your time management skills is all about being mindful of how you use your time. It is about making the maximum use of your time for better productivity and efficiency.
When you have good time management skills, you don’t stress about not doing enough work or you don’t miss out on what’s important; both personally and professionally.
With sound time management skills you focus on your time and energy on situations and people that matter. This is how you work harder and not just smarter, to make the most of your time.
What are the 5 Keys to Time Management?
Like I said before, time management is all about the choices you make, it is about what you choose to do in the moment that defines your time management skills.
Here are the 5 key elements that have helped me improve my time management skills.
1. Reflect on Your Present Time Management
The first step towards improving your time management skills is to reflect on your daily life. You need to figure out where your time is going.
Conducting a time audit will help you understand how many tasks you can accomplish in a day. It will help you identify your time-suckers like unproductive thoughts, useless conversations, and other mundane activities.
This will lead you to focus on activities that will provide the greatest returns on your efforts.
2. Set SMART Goals
Your goals are the reason you want to improve your time management skills. The ground rule is to understand what you want and why you want it. Setting goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely is the second step.
When you have your long-term goals clear in your head, you must break them into small everyday tasks to complete. This is how you will keep yourself from feeling overwhelmed and manage your time effectively.
3. Plan Your Week on Sunday Evening
Sundays are meant to rest and rewind. But, dedicating a few minutes in the evening to plan your week can change your time management drastically. If you’re quite confused about how to approach your time management, try a Sunday reset.
You can use a digital planner or maintain a diary or notebook to do this. Your weekly work plan lists all the important tasks that should be completed within the new week. The goal is to not push these tasks into the next week and complete them on the designated days.
4. Maintain an Everyday To-Do List
Before going to bed, make sure you dedicate some time to reflect on your day and build your to-do list for the next day. I have been following this method for the past 4 years and it has been working great since Day 1.
Every morning you have to follow the “eat that frog” method. This method says you must select the three most important tasks for the day. You should start your day with the most demanding tasks.
An everyday to-do list will free your brain capacity by giving you a bigger picture of the day’s work schedule and preparing you for the next day.
5. Prioritize Ruthlessly and Target to be Early
No matter how efficiently you plan, you may lose out on some tasks during the day. The simplest way to save yourself from pushing your important tasks to the next day is prioritization.
It is the key to effective time management. You must learn to prioritize the important tasks and let go of the rest of them for the day. You should also prioritize completing these tasks before time, not on time. When you wait to work just before the deadline, you are most likely to miss it. Thus, train your mind to be early instead of on time.
What are the 7 Tips in Time Management?
Now that you know the 5 keys to time management, here are 7 best tips that will help you improve your time management skills.
1. Stop Multitasking
This might sound simple but it is the most difficult practice to follow. If you are really serious about improving your time management skills, it is significant to improve your focus on the present tasks.
Resisting the urge to multitask can be hard. Constant notifications on your phones and laptops can contribute to the struggle. By multitasking, you only lose your time and decrease your productivity by switching from one task to another. Thus, you must take it one task at a time.
2. Try Time Blocking
Time blocking means assigning time limits to your tasks. Instead of working until the end of the task, have time blocks for them. Making a to-do list is of no use if you never check off the tasks.
Time blocking adds a steady pace to your workflow. You can try the Pomodoro Technique to help you check off your to-do list and reduce your mental stress. It lets you work for 25 minutes, take 5-minute breaks, and repeat this four times until you take a longer break of an hour.
3. Organize Your Work Systems
You might have to set a few hours aside for this on your to-do list. It is vital to have organized work systems to implement effective time management.
Whether that’s manual or digital, your work systems play a crucial role in both saving and wasting your time. You should not be spending hours finding a paper or document because you don’t know where it is. Whether it’s your work table or your management systems like Google Drive, clean them once a month to reap long-term benefits.
4. Try Working in Batches
Batch working on similar types of tasks is a great way to improve your time management skills. It saves you both time and mental energy because you don’t want to do the same type of work on different days during the week.
With batch creation, you get into the flow of working and it amplifies your creativity for those tasks. This gives you better results. For example; having specific hours dedicated to answering emails, making phone calls, content creation, etc. is an effective time management strategy I follow in my freelancing business too.
5. Learn to Say No
Your time management efforts can go in vain if you don’t learn to say no. Becoming efficient at your work and doing it all is great. But, learning to say no is very important for the stronger implementation of your plans.
When you say no, you truly know what you have time for. So, if you need to decline some requests that you understand will overpower your main tasks, you shouldn’t hesitate to do that. Hence, you’ve to be mindful and focus on your efforts accordingly.
6. Outsource Your Work Whenever Possible
If you find a great opportunity and want to take it up despite your rigid work schedule, choose to outsource. Honestly, delegating your work is the hardest skill to learn. But, it amplifies both your personal and professional time management.
No matter how small your business is if you can hire people, do it. I have started doing it recently and it has really boosted both my time management and work process. You don’t have to be a one-person show. Delegating work to reliable people will take off your load to focus on other important things.
7. Take Advantage of Your Productive Hours
Did you know your body has its productive hours? Ever heard someone call themselves a morning person or a night owl? There are scientific reasons behind this.
The human species is divided into four categories based on their sleep chronotypes: the lion, the bear, the wolf, and the dolphin. Your sleep chronotypes help you find the right time of the day when you are most productive.
So go ahead, and learn about your sleep chronotype. Find your most productive hours and use them to the best of your potential.
What is the Golden Rule of Time Management?
Well, I have been working as a professional for 4 years, and here is the golden rule of time management I have been following ever since:
If it can be done in 3 minutes or less, do it right away.
4 Important Time Management Skills for Students
If you are a student, here are 4 things you can do to improve your time management skills and scale your academic career:
1. Take Breaks Regularly
Yes, taking breaks also counts as a time management tip. Make them a part of your schedule. Reward yourself with a few minutes away from your screen or books when you finish a big task.
Taking mini-breaks in between your study sessions is not just important to pause and breathe but they are also important for your physical health. Small breaks to go for a short walk, play a quick game, meditate, etc. all of this will improve your productivity and help you refresh your mind as well.
2. Declutter Your Workspace
Whether it’s your mail inbox or your workspace table, a cluttered and messed-up environment will only add to your laziness. There is no point in filling your inbox with unwanted emails, so delete the ones you don’t need. Unsubscribe from email lists that don’t add value to your life.
Clear the mess on your work table. Collect your scattered books, notebooks, or papers and organize them. All of these add to your productivity and help you follow the above time management tips with better impact.
3. Break Your Bad Habits
None of you are naive enough to not understand your time wasters. When you reflect on your present schedule as mentioned in the first point, acknowledge what takes your time away.
Is it your social media? It is Netflix? Is it your habit of checking your emails constantly? Take control of your bad habits and start by backing off from them. If it’s your phone, keep it away from your eyesight while studying. Out of sight out of mind does get real in this concern.
4. Realize That Time Management is a Myth
I know this might come as a contradiction to the above points but you must know that you cannot manage time. You have to manage yourself.
Everyone gets 24 hours in a day. It is how you use your time that creates all the difference. Time doesn’t change according to you, you have to manage your 24 hours effectively. You have to train your mind every day to build habits that don’t waste your time but improve your time management and let you study with more sincerity.
Conclusion
I understand that the last subheading might have made you feel uneasy. But, as I said, everyone has 24 hours and you have to manage them yourself.
These tips will help you foster a growth mindset that will improve your time management skills and let you build your productivity levels by establishing sustainable habits.
According to a psychology study, it takes 66 days to build a habit. So, don’t beat yourself up to make these happen in a short period. Start by implementing small lifestyle changes to your schedules and increase your efforts as you progress.
If you loved reading this time management guide, here’s a list of life skills you can explore while improving your time management skills.
Have a great time managing your time!
